REMARKS BY MARK FIELDS PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAS, FORD MOTOR COMPANY U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE - JUNE 14, 2006
Below is the text of remarks by Mark Fields, as prepared for delivery to the United States Chamber of Commerce.
It’s a pleasure to be here this morning at the United States Chamber of Commerce. Any corporate executive who has something to say – to consumers, to business colleagues, to the United States government – is lucky to get the chance to say it here.
The US Chamber was founded – at the request of a US President – because both corporate and government interests understood that the health of our society depends on the health of business in that society.
That’s why societies have a profound interest in the health of their businesses – and the United States has a profound interest in the health of American business.
There is perhaps no business more iconic to America than the automobile industry. Kids sketch cars in their notebooks … musicians sing about them … everyone from Steve McQueen to Pixar have made movies about them. Automobiles move our families and are the backbone of our commerce. And nothing makes the heart race like seeing a Mustang GT tear down the road.
Our cars aren’t just American icons. I’m here because a successful domestic automobile company is a national treasure.
And that imposes a unique responsibility on Ford as well as our partners in government.
Today, I want to talk with you about how Ford Motor Company is fulfilling our obligations, what our partners in government can do to help, and why it matters to America.
First, let me tell you how Ford is taking responsibility for its own future.
And that means first acknowledging that we’ve made mistakes in the past.
Perhaps, in the language of Washington, I should say, “Mistakes were made.”
Too often in the past, our philosophy was to move the metal – to build the vehicles we had the capacity to build and then price them – and often discount them – to get the customer to bite.
We allowed ourselves to get bogged down in the accumulated decisions and systems of the past, getting stuck in old ways of thinking, and producing products that were a reflection of that thinking – vehicles that aimed to be all things to all people, but instead ended up being too little to too few.
Even when we had successes, like with our SUVs, we grew so dependent upon that success that we didn’t look far enough beyond the horizon, tracking the trends, knowing our customers, and seeing the day when they might want something else.
Today, I’m proud to tell you, that’s the Ford of the past – not the Ford of today.
True customer-focus means that our business decisions originate from our knowledge of what the customer wants, both today and tomorrow. “If you build it, they will buy it” – that’s business as usual, and that’s wrong. “If they will buy it, we will build it” is right – and we’re going back to it.
Ford remains an iconic American brand, and we still enjoy economies of scale, loyal customers, great suppliers, committed dealers, productive workers, and visionary designers and engineers.
And, this is a bit of news that doesn’t get reported enough: Even while we face a tough 2006 in North America, we continue to make money around the world. In fact, every one of our operations outside the United States – Asia, Europe, South America – was profitable last year and in the first quarter this year, with a solid foundation for growth in the long-term.
That said, it is our mission – and my intention – to return our North American automotive operations to profitability as well – and to do so no later than 2008.
To that end, we’ve launched a turnaround plan called The Way Forward. It was created by challenging some of the brightest minds in our business to question everything we did and then to draw up a blueprint for our success.
This plan has been characterized by some in the media as job cuts and plant closings. It does include those things, and they are painful to acknowledge and enact. But that’s not the heart of the plan. We can’t cut our way to growth. We have to innovate.
That means innovating under the hood... in design… in quality… in safety… in environmental impact… and in production. But innovation for its own sake won’t work. We have to innovate for a purpose – and that purpose is building bold, relevant vehicles that people want to buy.
The United States is the most open and competitive automotive market in the world. By the end of the decade, there will be more than 300 models competing for customers’ attention. If you miss the mark on what consumers want, they’ll go somewhere else, fast.
That’s the reality, and it’s also a huge opportunity.
Because if you do hit that sweet spot – with vehicles that excite people and meet their needs – you can profit just as quickly, too.
Although it’s still in its early days, we’re already seeing The Way Forward at work.
Our new products – especially our fuel-efficient cars – are selling well. The Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan, and Lincoln Zephyr, all had their best months ever, and are gaining share at the expense of our Japanese competitors.
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